Here was my trial setup:

Onkyo Receiver with HDMI
Onkyo DVD with HDMI
Sony Grand Wega TV with HDMI
Pace Tahoe HD Cable Box

I spent a fortune on HDMI cables!

Here's what I tried

From the Pace DVR to the TV-- HDMI cable
From the DVD player to the receiver---HDMI cable
From the Receiver to the Pace DVR---HDMI cable

Then I turned it all on and thought all was okay, but I was not able to get anything but ProLogic sound--no Dolby Digital.

For some reason I thought the HDMI cables would be able to do this--but not!

I needed to run a fiber cable from the Pace DVR to the receiver.

Does this make sense? It did work, though

Do you have HDMI Audio setup properly on the devices? I would make sure they are set to BitStream so that the recieve doesn't have any probs decoding it.

You should have no problems getting DD, DTS etc through HDMI, you shouldn't have to run another optical cable for sound.

"I spent a fortune on HDMI cables!"

WHY????

1st, my comment on spending a fortune on cables was a little bit misleading. I have a connection. But, I have $100.00 HDMI cables (retail). My cost was about $20. Thats what the mark-up is. I wont mention through who, but you wouldnt believe the mark-up on accessories. Thats where they get you. They actually make VERY little on TV's, computers, etc.

About my HDMI connections.... Again here's the setup..

STB to receiver---HDMI
Receiver to TV----HDMI
DVD to receiver---HDMI

Thought that was all I needed. But I couldnt get Dolby Digital sound.

So, got out the STB manual and looks like they are suggestion, in addition to the HDMI, a fiber cable between the STB and receiver.

It DID work. It was an $11 fix.

So, when I got the reply I started messing around with the receiver settings. I found a section of the manual that explains that in settings...

"This preference determines whether audio received at the HDMI IN is output by the HDMI OUT. You may want to turn this preference on if your TV is connected to the HDMI OUT and you want to listen to the audio from a component thats connected to an HDMI in, throogh your TV's speakers. Normally this should be off."

So I did this, but got absoulutely no audio.

Then I read the following..." With some TV's and input signals, no sound may be output even when this setting is "ON"."

Any thoughts, comments ...

Some equipment won't pass audio and video over HDMI at the same time. As a HT installer I deal with this confusion almost daily. You can thank the Hollywood industry for all the HDCP issues everyone has. As for the $100 HDMI cables, I too get a sick discount but there are better deals on the net if you look around.

Im guessing at monoprice.com

Are you limited to Dolby Pro Logic when both your sources (the DVD player and the STB)? I have seen some HDMI DVD players that ship with the default audio format on the HDMI connector set to 2ch PCM, and you have to manually go into the DVD player's setup menu to activate DD/DTS on the HDMI output. The same might be true of the STB. I have not personally seen an HDMI DVD that can not output DD/DTS on the HDMI output, so hopefully you can resolve this when the DVD player is the source.

It is also possible that the STB just doesn't support sending the compressed audio streams on HDMI. If this were the case, it is not a limitation of the HDMI spec (it can easily handle DD/DTS and much more) but is just the way the product was designed. HDMI requires at minimum that 2ch PCM audio must be sent on HDMI, but all other audio formats are options left to the device manufacturer. If the instruction manual for the STB alludes to having to use a SPDIF cable to get DD/DTS out of it (even when using HDMI), that may be indicative of such a design where the compressed formats were not routed through the HDMI electronics.

As for the option to make audio go out of the AV receiver's HDMI output port, this is because users sometimes like the option to use the TV's speakers while others never want to use the TV speakers and always listen to audio from the AV receiver. This option is nice ti have in that if you only want to hear audio rendered by the AV receiver, the TV speakers don't need to be manually muted.

Thanks for the reply.

Im not sure I follow all of what you said, but..

I find nothing in my Pace TDC775D STB manual that says anything about Dolby or DTS. Also it mentions that the HDMI should carry all digital video and sound, but in the diagram it shows a fiber cable being used.

As for the DVD--you are correct I had to set it up to get Dolby 5.1 or DTS.

Any more info would be great!

Reading the manual of the STB it looks like I wouldnt need the fiber cable if I was going straight from the STB to the TV, But, I am since I am not using the audio ofthe TV ( Im actually getting audio at the STB and passing it through to the Receiver) and the STB doesnt have 2 HDMI outputs. If it did I could use HDMI from the STB to the TV and one from the STB to the receiver.

Does this make sense?

Sending HDMI directly to the TV works fine because the TV (most likely) can only support 2ch stereo audio, which the STB does appear to be able to transmit on HDMI. If the manual shows a diagram sending HDMI directly to the TV, and using the optical SPDIF cable for sending DD/DTS to the AVR, then that would infer that the STB can't send DD/DTS over HDMI.

One last ditch effort you might try is to call your MSO (cable/satellite company) and ask them how you can get DD/DTS out of the HDMI connection. Maybe there is a "secret" configuration menu? It's not common to find a source device where the audio & video capabilities of the HDMI port are less than the older legacy ports.

Thanks---Thats the exact set-up I am using. I ca get DTS and Dolby Digital.

I think I know why I still need the fiber cable from the AVR to the STB.

Thanks